


The Zane Approach to... Cats

by ownedbyacat



Series: Tom and Jerry Tales [1]
Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 03:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ownedbyacat/pseuds/ownedbyacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cross-posted from my tumblr - just so all the fanfics are in one place!<br/>I blame this entirely on a post by Daisy asking for a Ty & Zane story with kittens. So y’all see it’s not my fault! You can’t just hand me prompts like this and leave me unsupervised near a keyboard…</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Zane Approach to... Cats

Thank the gods that Ty was such a squirrel, Zane thought with a tired sigh. It was Thursday evening, close to midnight. Zane had finished building the pen in the spare bedroom after a late dinner and now knelt on the floorboards in the attic of their Baltimore rowhouse, flashlight in hand. Neat stacks of boxes surrounded him and Zane was careful to put each box back exactly where he’d found it once he was finished rifling through it. Ty’s squirrelling tendencies didn’t extend to labels, and there were _a lot_ of boxes, but at least he didn’t have to guess what kind of gear he would need. Or go out to buy it. The whole situation was crazy enough as it was, without that added hassle.

The last couple of months had been difficult. Lonely too, with only the odd call to let him know that Ty was safe and calls to Ty’s brother to share news. Zane was mostly keeping it together, but one morning the frustration must have come across loud and clear.

“Get a fucking dog,” Deuce had snarled at him, his uncharacteristic crankiness most likely due to lack of sleep.

Zane had snorted dismissively, but the thought hadn’t left him, even after he’d ended the call to Deuce and spent the next several hours earning paper cuts. No way was he going to get a dog. Not while Ty was away. Or ever. 

In the end, he had asked Clancy, but - strangely enough - it had been Perrimore who had texted him the address of the animal shelter and the name of the woman who was now waiting to meet him.

“I don’t have the greatest track record,” Zane admitted after he had introduced himself. “Cats just… don’t seem to like me much.”

The woman, Regine, smiled widely and took his arm. “Don’t you believe that for one moment, sugar,” she assured him in a lilting accent that spoke of warmer climes. “Some people are popular with everyone they meet. Others need to search a little longer to find people that fit with them. It’s the same with cats.”

It was easy to see why Perrimore had sent him here and Zane relaxed as much as he could in a room full of cats that all seemed to want a taste of his blood. He could tell from the looks they were giving him.  Zane had almost convinced himself that this had been a waste of time and a wholly stupid idea when Regine opened the door to a small room and stood aside to let him enter.

A large pen took up the centre of the room and inside were… twelve kittens. Tiny fluffballs, barely larger than his hand with large curious eyes and ears and tails that never stopped moving.

“Sit here, Agent Garrett.” Regine patted the floor in front of the pen invitingly.

Zane settled himself, shocked into immobility when the woman suddenly released one side of the pen and the kittens started to pour into the space between him and Regine.  A few went straight for the woman, using their tiny claws to climb her skirts.  A few stayed back warily or went to explore other parts of the room, but one small, dusky kitten approached Zane cautiously and looked him over.

Zane stretched out a hand as he had seen Ty do when trying to befriend Smith and Wesson, Julian Cross’ monstrous cats, and the tiny kitten inched closer. Its nose wrinkled as it neared and almost invisible whiskers twitched back and forth nervously. Then the kitten reached him and sniffed his fingers, clearly curious. Zane was amazed when it didn’t run away and finally gathered the courage to bridge the gap and stroke the tiny head with a fingertip. The kitten pushed its chin up, leaning into the touch and Zane saw its eyes:  a mysterious mix of brown and green that seemed somehow familiar. Ty’s eyes, he realised with a shock. That kitten had eyes like Ty’s!

“We have a fit, don’t you think, Agent Garrett?” Regine’s soft voice enquired. Zane could hear the smile without having to turn his head to look and he nodded, totally dumbstruck as the kitten climbed up his leg and settled into his lap.  Zane ran his finger over the kitten’s head again, amazed when it started to purr.

“May I…,” his voice was rough and he cleared his throat. “May I adopt this one?”

Regine’s laugh was like the tinkle of silver bells. “You certainly may, Agent Garrett. Though I should warn you that you haven’t passed the test quite yet.”

“The… test?”

“Tom seems to have fallen hook, line and sinker for your charms, but he has a brother. And Jerry is a little more discerning when it comes to human company.”

Zane had trouble parsing that, too distracted by the small warm weight in his lap and the purr he could feel through the thick denim of his jeans.  But he turned his head in query and saw Regine point to the side of the pen. A pitch black kitten sat against the wall of the pen. It was upright, tail curled carefully around its legs and eyes trained on its brother in Zane’s lap. The kitten was so focussed, not even its whiskers twitched.

“Jerry?” Zane cooed hesitantly, utterly unsure how to build a link to the aloof creature and worried that would have to give up the kitten resting in his lap if he failed. “Your brother seems comfortable,” he continued, keeping his voice low and soft and feeling like an utter idiot doing so. “Why don’t you come and join him?”

To his total amazement, the black kitten moved. It stood, stretched to show its claws, yawned widely to show its teeth and then stalked towards Zane. Without a moment’s hesitation it climbed up Zane’s leg and joined its brother on Zane’s lap.

“Close your mouth, Agent Garrett,” Regine suggested with a smirk as she began to collect the kittens roaming around the room. “And keep sitting there for a moment while you enjoy your new family.”

After the kittens were back in their pen, Regine had led him – cradling Tom and Jerry awkwardly in his arm and marvelling at how light and small they were – to another room. This one held a smaller pen with a cat bed, food bowls and litter tray.

“Tom and Jerry will stay with us for another week while you decide if adopting them is the right choice for you,” Regine told him, raising her hand before he had even opened his mouth to object. “They’re very young and moving them to a new home is a big change for them.  During the next days, I want to see you here every day, getting acquainted. Have you ever looked after kittens before?”

Zane shook his head, eyes on the two tiny creatures in their pen. He wasn’t the most domesticated man on the planet, but surely he could learn? Hopefully without having to admit that he’d fallen in love with two tiny kittens that reminded him of himself and Ty.

Zane had gone to see the kittens every night after that. He had taken one of his old, worn sweaters for them to sleep on so they could become familiar with his scent, had bought tiny catnip mice and soft shoestrings, and had even dug one of Ty’s old tees from his gym bag. The bag had languished in the bottom of the closet for weeks now, stowed against moments when work and books, music and painting were no longer enough to keep the darkness at bay. It was his lifeline, but Zane decided that the kittens needed to know Ty and that had been that.

And now he was one day away from bringing two tiny kittens home. Apprehension curled in his gut, right alongside a good dose of excitement. He had built a pen for them in the spare bedroom, had taken two days off work to spend time with the cats and help them settle in, and if he could find the cat bed and food bowls that Ty had stored away he could finish setting up and finally head to bed.

***

Zane was shaking while he stood and watched the plane land and taxi down the runway. His insides churned with stark terror as his mind ran disaster scenarios as it had done all night.

_What if the discharge had been revoked? What if Ty had been sent out on another mission after he had called to say he was coming home? What if something had gone wrong and Ty wasn’t on the plane? What if…._

It was a good thing that Zane had taken time off work after Ty’s call or someone would have shot him by now. Or he would be on charge for homicide. As it was, he hadn’t slept for some time and if it hadn’t been for Tom and Jerry keeping him company-

Tom and Jerry. Oh. My. God. Zane had to fight not to be sick as he suddenly realised what he had done. Ty was coming home and he had… he was fucked. Totally, absolutely fucked. And not because of the kittens. Tom and Jerry had settled in surprisingly well. They coped with is erratic work hours and late night calls, curled up on the sofa with him when he fell asleep in front of the TV and kept him amused when little else had the power to draw a smile from him.  Zane knew now that Tom loved chicken, while Jerry preferred fish.  He had learned that Jerry wouldn’t drink tap water and that Tom loved to sit on the windowsill, even though it was too high for him to jump down. He’d drawn them both asleep and awake, had played with them for hours… and had not mentioned them to Ty. Not once, though they had spoken several times since the day the two brothers had arrived at the rowhouse.

How was Zane ever going to explain yet another secret?

And then Ty stepped from the plane and came down the gangway, eyes bright and bag over his shoulder. And the world stopped and remade itself in a brighter pattern.

Zane resisted the urge to run towards Ty, wrap him up in a hug and kiss him right there on the runway.  He wanted to, but the time spent apart had dropped an invisible barrier between them. Transparent glass through which they had to relearn each other.

Zane was grateful that Ty seemed unhurt. That he was home again, safe and sound. Their gazes held as Ty crossed the tarmac, both of them grinning like crazy. And then Ty was close enough to drop his bag and throw his arms around Zane’s neck.  The warm weight was familiar and Zane curled his arms around Ty’s waist, stopped thinking and simply enjoyed the moment.

They made it into Zane’s truck before they kissed, both driven by the unspoken urge to keep their reunion private. Whether from trepidation or the need to protect each other from scrutiny, Zane couldn’t have said. The soft, tentative meeting of lips was reassuring in its simplicity. It was a foundation they could build on.

“You look tired,” Zane finally said when he had looked Ty over. “Didn’t you sleep on the plane?”

Ty shook his head. “Too nervous. You?”

“Yeah,” Zane admitted. He reached to lace his fingers through Ty’s as he drove, finding it more than a little difficult to keep his eyes on the road. It was obvious when Ty became aware of his unease and he closed his fingers tightly around Ty’s, stopping him from drawing away.

Zane wanted to ease Ty’s mind, but he had no idea how to explain Tom and Jerry’s presence in their home.  Not until he parked the car and got out.

“I have a little… surprise for you,” he said, suddenly calm and almost confident.

“Not a party?” Ty sounded horrified.

“No,” Zane assured. He opened the front door, ushered Ty inside and locked the door behind them.  “It’s more in the way of a coming home gift,” he said softly, grabbed Ty’s hand and drew him towards the stairs.

Zane could hear the kitten’s voices as they were halfway up the stairs and, as expected, Ty froze. For a moment Zane wondered if Ty was expecting to see Smith and Wesson appear on the landing, then he was roughly pushed aside and Ty raced up the stairs three at a time.  Zane followed slowly, and when he reached the doorway to the spare bedroom, he found Ty on his knees staring raptly at the two tiny kittens in their pen, a huge grin on his face.

Zane released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and slumped against the door frame in relief.

“Welcome home, Ty.”

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise for the fluff, but we’ve been catless for nine months now and are getting ready to offer a new little friend a home. So anytime someone waves a cat prompt at me, I give in to temptation….


End file.
